Victor Emanuele Canevaro
Victor Emanuele Canevaro, Duke of Zoagli and Castelvari (Italian; born 27 March 1942 in Vienna, Austria; died March 2021; aka Emanuele Canevaro di Zoagli, duca di Castelvari e di Zoagli) is a former member of the Children of God and husband of Barbara "Queen Rachel" Cancaro. His official residence, Castello Canevaro, is in Poggio Secco, near Florence, Italy.
Duke Emanuele and Rachel were the "KQCs" of Southern Europe during the late 1970s.
Villa Poggio Secco
Duke Emanuele donated Villa Poggio Secco to the Children of God in the 1970s. It was later transfered back to the Canevaro family and sold.
The Florentine house in Poggiosecco is the centre, maybe the most prestigious of the Italian "Children of God", or at least the most comfortable, thanks to the generosity of the young Emanuele Canevaro, Duke of Zoagli, who joined the community, bringing as a donation the two houses built in the 400's.
A small group of "apostles" worked for a few years transformng the stables and hay-lofts into two splendid villas with wall-to-wall carpet, with the big wooden beams kept to the natural and with the armorials of Duke Emanuele's family mounted on the walls, a grand piano on which Michael, another "Child", plays "Momenti Fantastici" (Moments) by "Zio Davide" ("Uncle Dave's Band") or writes songs for record companies that have now sold thousands of records. On the wall are two "gold records". One sold 200,000 copies and the other 300,000.
Open Doors-Sinister accusations, "a mysterious group", "the CIA" such seem to be the vicissitudes in the life of the "Children of God" who seem to calmly face the storm with the door of their house wide open for whoever decides to put his nose in their business. Daniele from Milan, Grant the Canadian, Michael the American and so on, all twenty members of the community in Poggiosecco, succeeded in being extremely convincing as to the goodness of their intentions.
Even the most crafty and suspicious reporter, even the worst mud-stirrer, can't combine prostitution, slave trade and corruption with the picture of serenity that radiates from Poggiosecco, with their children clean and nice in the Montessori kindergarten facing the olive grove. Rather than a den of speculators, Poggiosecco seems to be the base of a community permeated with ideals and goodness.
- Source: "Commune of Heaven, Poggio Secco". Il Secolo XIX, Genova, Italy, 1977-08-25. (Translated from Italian by Daniele.)
Canevaro family
- Emanuele Giuseppe CANEVARO, Duke of Zoagli (b. 28 March 1872 - 21 August 1946)
- m#1. Ms. Carlo (see notes)
- m#2. Dianora di Guicciardini (b. 23 January 1889 - 25 July 1965)
- Raffaele CANEVARO, Duke of Zoagli (b. Firenze, Italy; 17 August 1913 - 15 September 1960)
- m. Terry CAMPERIO (b. 1 April 1918)
- Ottaviano CANEVARO
- Emanuele CANEVARO, Duke of Zoagli
- Carlo CANEVARO di Zoagli (b. 14 January 1954)
- Ottaviano CANEVARO di Zoagli (b. 27 March 1957)
- Dafne Dianora CANEVARO di Zoagli (b. 4 September 1943)
- Rosita CANEVARO di Zoagli (b. 26 September 1945)
- Roberta CANEVARO di Zoagli (b. 29 July 1955)
- m. Terry CAMPERIO (b. 1 April 1918)
- Raffaele CANEVARO, Duke of Zoagli (b. Firenze, Italy; 17 August 1913 - 15 September 1960)
Notes
Emanuele Giuseppe Canevaro was created Duke of Castelvari and Zoagli by King Umberto I (of Italy) in 1884.
Ms. Carlo was a descendant of two famous families: her father was the Honorable Giovan Carlo, firstborn of that ancient family and the direct descendant of the Cosimo de Medici. Her mother, Caterina Ricasoli, was the niece of Baron Bettino Ricasoli. Canevaro later married Dianora Guicciardini. In the period between the two wars, Palazzo Canevaro was a center of Florentine society and on innumerable occasions opened its doors to important Italian and foreign dignitaries.
